The Association of American Colleges & Universities invited Dr. Daniel McInerney, Dr. Norman Jones, and Dr. Phyllis Safman (Utah System of Higher Education) to lead a Utah team in a five-state “Faculty Collaboratives” project. The Utah group will bring together faculty from all eight Utah public campuses in a project that aims to integrate a family of academic initiatives geared towards 21st century learning. The Collaboratives will build faculty familiarity and engagement with the Degree Qualifications Profile project (focused on degrees), the Tuning project (focused on disciplines), and the GEMs/VALUE project (addressing general education and assessment). The Utah team will perform this work through a pair of projects: developing a web-based “hub” of electronic resources in quality learning; and holding face-to-face faculty development meetings across the state. We are especially excited about Utah’s unique contribution to the national project: “credentialing” contingent faculty in the academic reform initiatives that have energized post-secondary education over the past decade. In addition, we will appoint four “faculty fellows” from across the state to work with us in the project. Dr. McInerney will oversee as “hub director” the grant of $117,800 from the AAC&U. Stay tuned for more!
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